Travelling is something that everyone should take the time out to do often – and by travelling I mean it doesn’t matter whether you are travelling around to the other end of the earth or if you’re travelling to the next city over – it doesn’t matter, it’s what you make of it, movement is nourishing and adventure is hella good for the soul. I would recommend that everyone experience an overseas trip at least once in their lives, preferably lots more if your bank account permits. Saying that though, you don’t have to have the bank account of the Kardashians to travel the world, you just need to know how to do it smartly! If you’re hungry for adventure, new perspective and an experience you’ll never forget – you’ve gotta step out of your comfort zone! You might misplace all your luggage in an Irish hostel, get yelled at by an Italian grocery store worker about apples, or almost get left in an unknown city in the Netherlands (all true stories) – but travel tales make for brilliant conversation (now that you’ve got over the awkwardness of breaking your jandel in the middle of Amsterdam Airport and having to walk barefoot through it).
A couple of tips to begin with:
– A few people asked me if I was travelling alone, yes I did! A lot of people also followed up that question with “I don’t know how you did that! I could never do that”. Personally that kind of thing doesn’t phase me, I have travelled a few times by myself now so it wasn’t new to me but I do agree that it takes a certain type of person to do it alone and not freak out! I’ve always been quite independent and love adventure, so whether I am with other people or by myself – I find it really exciting finding my way and not really knowing what to expect so I guess that was all part of the adventure for me. I would HIGHLY recommend it, though if it’s not something you would usually do and you want to push your comfort zone, it helps you meet awesome people, experience the world in way that pushes you to your limits and certainly helps you brush up on your navigation and Google Translate skills.
– The best advice while travelling alone is to keep your cool, use your intuition and ENJOY. Remember even if you get stuck with something, someone is ALWAYS there to help you – don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Listening to your gut instinct is a biggie and if something feels off, then don’t put yourself in that situation (refer back to Paris Vlog with my little pick pocketer friend).
– If you want to really get into the theme of a gypsy-ish traveller (not that I went full gypsy, I still had showers and shaved my legs :P ) then you should practice travelling light. When I left I took 13kgs of luggage, which worked out really well especially in Italy when you’re trying to carry your luggage into the middle of Venice up and over bridges in 33 degree heat. Really think about what you need and what you can go without, think about all your toiletries – do you really need all those hair products/straighteners/makeup items? Strip it down to the bare basics – it doesn’t matter if you’re not looking insta model while travelling, you’re there for the experience so take the basics – your winged eyeliner won’t last 2 minutes in Venice in August anyway. Shoes is another one, I took 1 pair of slip ons and 1 pair of jandles (which as I mentioned above got annihilated in Holland), they take up a lot of space so be good to yourself and save room! (you might thank yourself when you get to Sydney and roll up at Sephora). When I got back to NZ my luggage was at 17kgs, it was at about 14kgs right through the whole trip but then I got to the markets in Bali and all hell broke loose. :/
– Eating, I didn’t eat out all the time throughout my travel. It was nice to have occasional meals out to experience the local cuisine, but I’m not gonna lie some days I had sushi for breakfast/Guinness for lunch/a whole vine of tomatos for afternoon snacks/wasabi peas and flapjacks for dinner. This kept the cost of my food down but I still got to enjoy restaurant meals out.
– If you’re into fitness and training, don’t: A) beat yourself up if you don’t train as much as you’re use to – B) think you’re going to get fat from not burning calories in the gym – C) Spend all of your holiday worrying about how you look
Before I left I had intentions to do workouts while I was away seeing as it was for 6 weeks, but all in all I got 1 yoga class in, 2 small gym workouts and that was it. It wasn’t because I was being lazy but the amount of walking I did while on holiday was like a workout in itself. Plus the logistics of getting to gyms/studios was sometimes going to take a few hours out from my day which really took away from me doing all the touristy things I wanted to achieve in a limited amount of time, and I wasn’t going all the way over to Europe to experience gyms. Be kind to yourself, incorporate a lot of walking into your days, eat well and indulge in moderation and don’t stress about your body – you look good.
– If you can be bothered, try booking it all yourself – I booked everything individually myself which for me was all part of the experience. In these Blogs I will list all the sites where I found everything I booked so that you can see the process and the break down of all the costs. My 6 weeks of travelling passing through 11 counties came in around $9,500 which included absolutely everything – all flights, accommodation, tourist activities, food, transfers, spending money and enough Kuta Markets playsuits and dresses to last me 5 Summers.
I hope you enjoy these blogs and find them useful, and if you have any questions please email me on hello@stacysadler.com
Thank you for reading x
